Reports

Last night 11 HAA members heeded the call and went out to McQueston Park for a cool evening of sidewalk astronomy. The array of telescopes looked impressive, as visitors had the opportunity to look through any of 2 Schmidt-Cassegrains, 1 Maksutov, 4 Newtonians and 2 refractors.

A slightly gibbous moon offered that "wow" factor with tremendous detail along the terminator and Jupiter received lots of attention due to a Europa shadow transit that was visible in even the smallest scope there (90mm). A meteorite was available for children to hold and examine, and of course there was lots of exchanges of information and sharing of eyepieces between the members. Jackie brought along a new 8" Dobsonian that was carefully assembled and examined by many members, and deemed to give very fine views! Attempts to set up the Maksutov with a binoviewer and a pair of 13mm Naglers met with success, as there was just enough room to fit in these very large eyepieces. The effort was very worthwhile, as the view of the moon through this set-up was spectacular!

As the night progressed and the visitors dwindled, attention was turned to how well we could see some deep-sky objects from this very light polluted area of the city. Not surprisingly, filters helped tremendously, and merely blocking the light of the closest lamps improved the view a lot. Although I could see only 5 of the Pleiades with the unaided eye (and only that with effort) the younger eyes of Kevin were able to pick out many more, showing once again that your eyes are the best observing tool that you have.

A big thank you to all the members who turned out to share the night sky with the public and were rewarded with a fun evening that included some great views of the sky and some even better company.

Here is the Perseus Double-Cluster and Comet 103P/Hartley 2, side by side, from Spectacle Lake, Barry's Bay, ON, single 2-minute image taken through Tamron 300 mm f/2.8 lens with Canon Digital Rebel 300D, on Thursday, October 7, 2010, at approx. 9:25 pm.

Perseus Double-Cluster and Comet 103P/Hartley 2, by Bob Christmas

--- Bob Christmas

Here is a small excerpt of one of my images of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 that I took from Spectacle Lake Lodge, near Barry's Bay, ON, Sunday Night, October 3, 2010, 10-pm-ish.

Comet 103P/Hartley 2, by Bob Christmas

This is a single 2-minute exposure, Canon Digital Rebel 300D through a Tamron 300mm lens at f/2.8 & ISO 1600. Gamma-corrected and contrasted slightly.

-- Bob Christmas